A mini international tournament is ongoing in Beijing now to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The three players are: Shi Yue 9-dan representing China, Lee Sodol 9-dan representing Korea, and Murakawa Daisuke 7-dan representing Japan. Interestingly, it's reported that Iyama Yuta was invited to play for Japan but he declined due to a schedule conflict. These are fast games using the same format as Asian TV Cup. The games are broadcast in the sports channel of CCTV, a big publicity for Go.

In the first game today, Shi Yue beat Murakawa Daisuke.

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/40531

Tomorrow Murakawa will play Lee. The winner of that game will play the day after tomorrow against Shi in the final.

"Schedule conflict." Hehe. Ironic considering the direction of the strongest pro thread.

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- Brady
Want to see videos of low-dan mistakes and what to learn from them? Brady's Blunders

Yes, a schedule conflict. Are you confused what that means?

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Occupy Babel!

It means they scheduled the Chinese New Year when he was busy.

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Still officially AGA 5d but I play so irregularly these days that I am probably only 3d or 4d over the board (but hopefully still 5d in terms of knowledge, theory and the ability to contribute).

Some extra information: the prize money is quite good. The winner can take home 800,000 CNY (132,000 USD) by playing just two games! And there is 200,000 CNY for the 3rd-place player.

With game 3 of the Kisei starting Thursday, Iyama was never a possibility. However, despite his high number of wins last year, I doubt most Japanese fans would see Murakawa as the alternate.

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Iyama could return on Tuesday (or more likely on Monday - given the strong opponents I don't think he would be the favourite to win). If he seriously wants to sharpen his skills by playing other top players, I don't see the schedule a big problem. Let's see what other top players (Lee Sedol for example) could do in a short period of time:

[2013-11-04] 18th Samsung Cup, semi-final 1
[2013-11-06] 18th Samsung Cup, semi-final 2
[2013-11-07] 18th Samsung Cup, semi-final 3
[2013-11-10] Year 2013 Korean League
[2013-11-11] 41st Korean Myeongin, final 1
[2013-11-12] 41st Korean Myeongin, final 2
[2013-11-14] 4th Korean Olleh Cup, semi-final
[2013-11-16] 15th Chinese City League A, round 20
[2013-11-20] 57th Korean Kuksu, challenger decision match #1
[2013-11-21] 57th Korean Kuksu, challenger decision match #2
[2013-11-23] Year 2013 Korean League

That was 11 games in 19 days, including a trip to China to play the Chinese League in the middle.

Could he do it, of course. As it is, he already plays more games than any other player in Japan. I think it's completely reasonable to focus on the Kisei. I would have preferred to see Takao Shinji or Kono Rin who had much better years than Murakawa Daisuke, but they probably wanted to give the younger player the opportunity.

Yes, it is certainly true that Iyama could go and play and come back and right a away play a two-day game. But should he? Recently someone on L19 (the name slips my mind, let me think, let me think, who could it have been?... ) was whining about Lee Sedol and Gu Li not winning a single title in 2013. Some people like to claim that they are over the hill. I am willing to believe that they are also over-worked! But what do I know?

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

It's an awful lot easier to cram in lots of games when you only have to spend a half an hour on your games, as in a certain country not a million miles away from Japan. It's also necessary if the prize funds are smaller.

But it's wrong to paint Japanese players as being able greedily to sit on their hands at home as they watch barrow-loads of wonga being trundled before their eyes.

Players in all countries obviously consider their own self interest, but not necessarily in the short term. They essentially do whatever is needed to keep sponsors happy and to keep them coming back year after year. For some of us it's a shame that in Korea this means becoming a mouse tossed onto a supercharged treadmill while trying to accumulate enough crumbs, though it can be argued that it helps young players break through early.

The porridge is piled high in Japan but with not many spoons for the young players. The Goldilocks scenario there is beginning to change, but rather slowly. In the meantime, Iyama has to think not just about feeding his own face but also about showing respect to the sponsor. If he disappears off to China and loses stamina just before a massively funded title match, the sponsor might decide next year to take his sack of oats elsewhere.

It's a sad fact of life that all professional go players have to be something of a quisquis character.

Well, at least we no longer need to argue on whether Murakawa Daisuke is a good replacement. He just won his game against Lee Sedol.

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/40532

What exactly do you mean by this? I don't see it following from the previous statements?

Perhaps, to the contrary, some people will take this as more cause to be disenchanted with Lee Sedol ("over the hill" and all that). That's not my take, but I doubt we'll no longer need to argue.

Don't worry, that won't stop us from arguing anyway! (=



But seriously, congrats to Murakawa!

In the final game, Shi Yue defeated Murakawa Daisuke:

http://www.go4go.net/go/games/sgfview/40557